I miss the USA *Update*

These last few weeks haven't been the easiest. I just see the whole aliyah thing as pointless. Its kinda like being in a dead end job without the possibility to get another job. I've always said no matter how hard it gets here and no matter how much crap gets put on me its cheaper than day school in the US but lately communities are dropping their day school tuitions. DH is at a friend's wedding and I found myself working out how much money it would cost for us to get a good 4BD 2 BA home within the eruv in Columbus. ($89,000-100,000) Day school before scholarships ( $7500) How much earning potential DH and I would have ($100000-125000 per year) We would have spendable income again. Maybe even savings. We recently went to check out what would be the procedure for buying something here. 1. 20% downpayment is a MIN. They prefer 40%. Even with money coming from the US I don't see it happening. Everything on this side of the green line that commutable to the actual work areas(no more than 1 hr from house to work) is crazy expensive and buying over the line is ify at best because they keep claiming that whichever Arab that sold the land years and years ago was suddenly bamboozled out of his land and the sale wasn't valid. I'm not willing to put my heart and soul into a place and then have it taken from me. I'd rather watch it burn. I don't want to rent for the rest of my life. 2. The work vs. daycare problem. If DH and I have any hope of saving for the downpayment for a house then I need to work full time at a real job that pays real money but daycare ends at flipping 4pm?! 3. If both of these things were some how fixed why should I even bother when my right to be treated like a person is ignored by so many Israelis. In my heart of Hearts I hope DH finishes school and gets a telecommuting job so he can gain experience and we can go back. Thanks for listening.

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Married the love of my life 11/2009

DD 10/2011

The hand that rocks the cradle still rules the world, and always will.

Comments (39)

i don't know if this helps at all, but I often hear about jobs where you can work from home during evening/night hours...if you want me to pass on the info let me know.

also, have you considered buying in other regions? is that a possibility? in terms of hitnachaluoyot, it's not necessarily cheaper at all, at least not in our region...apartments in the gush (efrat) go for at least 15% more than areas nearby that don't carry the same status.

finally, i dont know if im repeating info that you already know or not but EMI gives out loans as well, the same interst rates as the bank but for longer period of time. they will give you up to 90% of the value of the place that you want to buy.

No, I've never heard of EMI. What's it stand for? I think I could actually deal with the other Israeli Bull if we had a home and decent jobs or atleast ones that allowed us to save. The thing is DH is going to work in Hi-tech with the hours required by that I don't want a 2hr commute home. We were looking for a small yeshuv off the train line but not too small because then you get too many small minded Israelis.

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Married the love of my life 11/2009

DD 10/2011

The hand that rocks the cradle still rules the world, and always will.

we've considered moving back to the USA because adopting there is so much easier -- but the big reason I don't want to? KUPAT HOLIM. I can't imagine going back to the American system.

We are looking to buy too, but don't know where (also, a lot of the smaller places, it's hard to fit in without kids...) Shaina is really happy in Armon HaNatziv - and we've been thinking about that. (We don't to move until next summer, in any case).

As you know, my DH works in high-tech, for now in Jerusalem, but most jobs are in the Tel-Aviv area, so if we move out of Jerusalem, it would probably be towards the coast. There are a lot of nice places, we just don't know them. How important is it that there be other English speakers? There are a lot of nice Israeli places. You have to talk to people outside of Jerusalem.

We have friends that moved to Pardes Chana and love it. Its off the train line and has good schools for the kids. We also liked Kfar Yona near Netanya. We like that they have a nice Anglo crowd in the city. It is important to me that there are some Anglos because I like English theatre and having shows and things to go to. I checked out the EMI group and their deal seems amazing. We've been saving but with the thought that we'd put down like 20-25%. 40% was just too much out of our budget and made owning something seem like an impossible dream.

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Married the love of my life 11/2009

DD 10/2011

The hand that rocks the cradle still rules the world, and always will.

We moved to Maaleh Adumim. It's over the green line, but it feels safe, and it's a larger place. It's hard to see how they could do anything to it.

It's relatively expensive compared to further out places, but it's much cheaper than Jerusalem. And the commute is the same as from some parts of the city. The public transporation is amazing.

The afterschool daycare goes to 4:30pm. My dh works from home, but otherwise, the way to do it, is different start time, if one starts at 7am and the other 9am, one should be able to drop off and the other pickup.

emi is a great option....like i said the difference is the time that you pay back the loan...it's longer...also remeber that if this is your first home in israel there are all sorts of tax reduction...especially if the home is under 1 milllion NIS...furthermore, from my expireince, going through a realator can save you a lot of money, they sometimes have some hidden gems and you can always negotiate with the commision that they receive....but i would not recomend buying something new that is not built yet...building companies here are notorious for being years late on their finished product....plus you have to pay rent and mashkanta until the new place is ready.....get something ready to go....

in terms of communities, i think that you may be able to find cheaper than pardes chana...nefesh be'nefesh has a list of anglo communities on their website....you should also try not to be too picky....when we first moved to our yishuv all of my inlaws and friends made fun of us saying that we are moving in with certain ethnic classes that they think are lower than them...to date I'm very happy where we are....we chose it becuase it is close to j'lem, it was affordable, we have a yard, and there are some anglos for me to talk to.... why does it have to be off the train? busses here are pretty reliable as well...

as for a garin, i think that if you are having doubts of living in israel, a garin is not necessarily the best way to go....from my expireince, garin torani includes ideology over other things that you may consider important...

finally, in terms of "israeli bull," there is all kind of bull in this world, including the american and other countries....it's just different!